The Unruffled Rolls Royce Serenity

The Serene Path

The roundheads who have been criticising the Phantom Serenity for its ostentation seem to have missed the point. The car — launched at the Geneva Motor Show recently — is designed for single customers. It's made bespoke. What the car exhibits is the high standard of British craftsmanship employed by Rolls Royce when building to a customer specification. We should be celebrating that we still have craftsmen involved in the car industry with the ability to create such a wonderful car. A puritanical streak still pervades the English psyche, it appears. I thought the worst offenders shipped out on the Mayflower.

The interior of the Serenity is what interests most, with the rear compartment upholstered in embroidered green silk; the colour of the silk and the cherry blossom embroidery tracing the ceiling and doors recalling turn-of-the-century japonisme. The door surrounds and dash are of bamboo and cherrywood inlaid with mother of pearl. It's a work of art, frankly — art you can sit in and move around.

Keep it in Britain

I formally begin the campaign to keep the Serenity in Britain. How wonderful it would be to get this car in a museum. If the roundheads have their way — and we can't let that happen — future generations will only be able to look back with envy at the quality of work being produced without compromise in British factories in 2015.